But then again, once in a while, you see “it.” The real stuff. And your heart gets a longing. And you realize that “it” does exist outside of books and off the silver screen.

I’m just smitten. I love our First Couple.

PS. I challenge you not to smile after watching that video.

I had my first negative comment yesterday and it generated more traffic and comments on my blog than anything else in the past month.  Okay, now I understand why politicians use negative campaign tactics – it gets people’s attention!

I really thought the post was relatively benign but I guess I could kinda sorta maybe see how 46% of America might get offended.  But it clearly wasn’t my intention. Here’s a little snippet if you didn’t catch it yesterday:

In response to my post Kelly said (no blog URL left):

How can you talk like that to your daughter. I am and will always be a McCain supporter, when my kids got up this morning(12, 14 & 15) that were sad that Obama became president and started to say negative things about him. I stopped them and said he is now the president of the united state – your UNITED state and you must support him while he is president. Obama would be disappointed in you and your daughter from what I have heard he wants a united america not a divided. Your still divided even though he won. BTW my father is a great man and he loves his grandchildren and cares deeply about that generation and he can’t text either.

Here was my response:

@Kelly – I’m not sure what you are talking about. I don’t say negative things about McCain the person, but I do not agree with his ideology. These are the thoughts/words of a 14 yo and the culmination her own opinion after reading the newspaper, watching 3 debates, discussing the issues with her classmates and watching a documentary on both candidates. The text comment came from her not me and it was her interpretative comment of her believing that he doesn’t get her generation. My father doesn’t text either and he cares about the future too. Please know that we are unified in the fact that we love our kids and our country. There is nothing divisive about that.

Sorry you took offense.

Here was her reply:

I am sorry I took offense too. I hope that my worst fears for him becoming president and your greatest hopes for him becoming president are not the same – because america will never become united.

Snippets from the conversation that ensued:

From: Annabassham

@Kelly – I want a united America, but I am also on the defensive for Obama. I know (personally) some right-wing extremists who think Obama is a terrorist and hope he will be assassinated. I thought McCain’s concession speech was gracious, but I couldn’t believe the boos and negative comments I heard leaving the mouths of his supporters. My point is that there are people who will remain “divided” but as long as the majority of us come together and take responsibility for change, we will see the positive changes our country desperately needs.

I hope that we all can really COME TOGETHER and get over petty arguments under Barack Obama’s leadership.

From:  David Huston

@Kelly – Great job to you too, as you exemplify the worst part of the Republican party: the part that seeks to twist any remotely Democrat-supporting sentiment into a personal attack, and then retaliate against nothing.

And here’s our friend Kelly again:

@Dave Huston – anyone who starts a post out with now we don’t have to move to Canada exemplifies the worst of the democratic party! Enough said; I’ll just have to wait and see if my greatest fear come true.

@ Anna And that has nothing to do with thinking that Obama is a terrorist and anyone who want anyone to be assassinated is not a TRUE american.

We at Bacon Is My Enemy have no enemies today and would like to ask Kelly to come back with her negative comments on the next blog post that I write about a tender mother/daughter moment. It seems to create twice the amount of blog traffic, so thanks Kelly, I appreciate the extra hits.

All I can say is that if feeling all good inside about having hope for the future of a unified America under Obama is wrong, then I don’t wanna be RIGHT.

Thanks for your kind words and for reading my blog.  Big hugs to everyone on all sides of the political fence … I’ve got nothing but love.

]]> http://www.baconismyenemy.com/home/2008/11/first-negative-comment/feed/ 15 http://www.baconismyenemy.com/home/2008/11/obama-obama/ http://www.baconismyenemy.com/home/2008/11/obama-obama/#comments Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:00:40 +0000 Giyen http://www.baconismyenemy.com/home/?p=1738 GET OUT AND VOTE TODAY.

Maybe this is crazy but I feel that we are on the cusp of some kind of wonderful.  Call me the perennial optimist but I believe the struggles that America is facing are just the precursor to a greater shift in consciousness. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.  We want more meaning from life, not more things.

So it may be that we are still inundated with the same negative campaign advertisements, same negative discourse amongst pundits or negativity in our own backyards but we cannot deny the fact that there has been an influx of hope into our psyche.  We will still have our own opinion about the current political climate, but we are changed because the general conversation has changed.

Sitting in the front seat of history, watching the alteration of a nation’s landscape and ideology has brought me to tears.  From this point forward a person of color or a woman can now plausibly run for the highest office of our land.  This means that I can now look at my daughter and honestly tell her that she too can run for President.  How huge is that?  How can it not make you well up?

For the first time in history gay couples are being legally recognized as married couples.  So maybe it’s only in a couple of states, but come on … in the same year that we have a African American man and a woman run for President and then another woman for Vice President? At a time when we are demanding more innovation in the fight against global warming?  This is not Obama, this is not McCain.  This time it’s the American people speaking here.

And despite the outcome on November 4th, I can still say that our country has evolved.  It’s crazy and it’s beautiful to watch and it makes me proud.

So as a fledgling writer/blogger I started to wonder how I – the little blogger that could – could get picked for placement on Alltop.  And since I am woefully unsophisticated I figured I might was well cut to the chase and just ask the folks who put this thing together instead of trying to figure out another method to get attention.  Can’t hurt to ask, can it?  Right?

Wrong.  Yesterday morning I started writing what was supposed to be a clever and witty email to Guy and his partners about how they should feature “Bacon Is My Enemy.” However, midway through my email I got interrupted and had to stop writing to deal with something urgent. AND instead of pressing “save draft” – in my haste I clicked on the “send” button instead.

Oh God …

The email was a “Top 10 Reasons” why Alltop should feature my blog starting with:

#10.  You love Obama.  I love Obama.  We love Obama.

… and ending with:

#1.  I am (going to be) a big deal.

After I realized this unfortunate incident, my face turned red hot and I wanted to crawl under a blanket because I was so embarrassed.  SOOOOO embarrassed.  I can hardly write blog posts without writing, reading, rewriting and then reading again.  Really.  I’m neurotic like that. It’s amazing how many times you can edit a 750 word post. To send an unedited, unfinished letter made me want to crawl into a dark cave. And die.

But being a gracious person, Guy wrote me back and just said, “What’s your feed address.  That would help!  ”  And now I feel about 2% less embarrassed than before.

So in blog fashion, I am going to post my “Top 10 Reasons” why Guy should put me on the virtual magazine rack …

• #10.  You love Obama.  I love Obama.  We love Obama.
• #9.  Because even though I only set up shop 3 months ago, I have a better Alexa rating than other bloggers like “X” [who you already feature].
• #8.  I am funny and who doesn’t need more funny in their life?
• #7.  Everybody starts somewhere – I just choose to start as close to the (All)top as possible.  groan … I know.  i hadn’t edited yet!
• #6.  If this blogging thing doesn’t work out then I am going to have to go back to crunching numbers and having a variety of lottery fantasies.

I hadn’t even completed #’s 2-5 before it got sent, so I’ll add them now:

• #5.  Being a known as freelance writer/blogger can only help my second career as a Zoroastrian motivational speaker.
  
• #4. I have a teenage daughter who thinks that I’m nuts for doing this and I want to prove to her that anything is possible.  For instance, some people think her mom can be cool once in a while.
• #3.  I’ll tell you where Osama Bin Laden is hiding (because only John McCain and I know how to find him).
  
• #2. Oprah, Gayle and I are BFF’s.

And of course, #1 reason why “Bacon Is My Enemy” should be on Alltop:

[Because] I am (going to be) a big deal!

HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU ALLTOP!

UPDATE: I’m on Alltop now!! You can find a bunch of other great mom blogs here.

Thanks Guy Kawasaki!  Master Twitter-er.  Tweet-er?  Twitteratzi?